Syria As An Example Of The Obama Administration's Middle East Failure

Barry Rubin writes about The Pro-Islamist Obama Administration: A Case Study in Syria:

Almost a year ago today, November 17, 2011 to be specific, I analyzed the new Syrian opposition leadership created by the Obama Administration through the services of the Islamist regime in Turkey. It was already obvious that the Syrian National Council (SNC) was a Muslim Brotherhood front group, yet the Obama Administration backed it any way.

Even if you aren’t interested in this specific issue, the SNC story is a terrific case study of how the Obama Administration has trashed U.S. interests abroad, and especially in the Middle East.

If the White House’s plan had worked, Syria would definitely have ended up with an anti-American, antisemitic regime, allied with its fellow Brotherhood regimes in Egypt, the Gaza Strip, and Tunisia into an anti-American, anti-Western revolutionary bloc.

That might happen any way since the Obama Administration is still channeling guns to the Brotherhood and Salafists. But finally, after more than a year, the government has given up on the SNC.

Rubin notes that finally, on October 31, the Obama administration government discovered that the SNC was not the kind of group the US should be supporting in Syria -- accusing  them of trying to hijack the Syrian revolution:

In other words, this is an admission that the United States has been backing a group that promotes an extremist regime in Syria. And it also takes note of the increasingly open arrival in Syria of radical jihadists and al-Qaida supporters. Even a Chinese magazine has covered how Chinese Muslim Islamists are going to Syria to fight.

In contrast, Rubin supplies correctives to the mistakes of the Obama administration

• Stopp the supply of weapons by Qatar to the Muslim Brotherhood units in Syria and by Saudi Arabia to the Salafists.
  
  
• Wake up to the Turkish regime’s anti-American, pro-Islamist policies.
  
  
• Understand that although Brotherhood regimes in Egypt and Tunisia may “purport” support for democracy and human rights they are against both things.
  
  
• Realize that Libya was the place that this policy has just failed tragically: the use of Islamist guards and defering to a weak (if well-intentioned) and badly infiltrated government to protect American lives led to a successful terrorist attack and the murder of Americans.

Read the whole thing.

Even is Romney does indeed win the election, that is not a magical cure for the failures of the current US foreign policy:

• Obama would still have a good 2 months at the helm, during which time he is likely to pursue the same policy in accordance with the same assumptions, goals, and same apparent inexperience with the workings of the Middle East
  
  
• There is no telling for sure how Romney would approach Middle East policy -- especially since he himself has spoken in favor of supporting anti-Assad groups.

We'll know more come November 6th.

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Technorati Tag: Election 2012 and Syria and Obama.